Now the decades-long relationship is in question, as is the future of billions of dollars of Chinese investment in the country. At the same time, the US has handed China a new opportunity to assert its dominance in its own back yard, including on its claim to self-governing Taiwan, say analysts.Under the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, recently revived by US President Donald Trump, the Western Hemisphere falls under the US sphere of influence – and the US only.
Trump invoked the doctrine in his latest national security strategy published late last year. Originally intended to keep Europe out of the Western Hemisphere, Trump’s version emphasises the need to counter China’s presence there.
